He made a string of brilliant short films in the 1960s and 1970s - and then nothing. What happened to Geoffrey Jones? Stephen Moss met the maverick British director just before he succumbed to cancer earlier this week.

Is there any point trying to get meaning from the wishy-washy lyrics of bands such as Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol? Or have musicians just run out of things to say? John Harris on why pop has stopped making sense.